The social changes we have witnessed in recent years have introduced changes in the education system that were not expected by teachers who suddenly found themselves alone, teaching at a distance, from their private space and before their students who, more than ever, were unequal. Considering that the professional identity of the teacher is constructed by the feeling of belonging to a community, by the social practices of the subjects and by the articulation of the spheres of knowledge, of professional norms and values and of pedagogical knowledge, one can easily glimpse an enormous restlessness and anxiety, as well as the progressive awareness that their profession was going to be different and teaching as they knew it would not return.

This context of fluid times and successive crises – pandemic, economic, social, political, and educational regarding the lack of teachers in several European countries - led to changes in the understanding of what it is to be a teacher, as an educational actor with a specific knowledge and historically assigned functions, which gives him/her a certain identity.

Assuming that educational change must be understood considering patterns and forces of change that provide different paths according to the historical and cultural reality of each region, country or even professional, educational policies are refracted whenever there is a change in level or actors, accepting that this refraction occurs even at the level of the classroom with each of the professionals who work in it. 

Teachers’ narratives are relevant in this context of individualized society, and a fundamental tool for understanding educational change, as they are assumed as a refraction of the educational history, as well as social, political and economic changes. This option seems consistent with the objectives indicated since it allows for the reconstruction of reality and a discursive practice that provides meaning to the experiences, facilitating the explicitness of what was lived, allowing the researcher to theorise what was lived and, also, the re-signification of the knowledge produced through what was experienced (Reis, 2008).

This study is part of a broader project entitled "Times of Change and Times of Change: A Study on the Relationships Between Curriculum Autonomy, Professional Engagement, and Teachers' Well-Being." The project aims to understand the relationship between the development of curriculum autonomy and flexibility policies in educational contexts and teachers' professional engagement and well-being.

In this regard, it is relevant to look at teachers’ lives and work to understand their trajectory and to analyse their professional processes regarding three dimensions: identity, professional knowledge, and professional learning. The investigation tried to answer the question of what are the effects of Portuguese policies of curriculum autonomy and flexibility between 2015 and 2023 on teacher professionalism.

Along with the concept of refraction, life histories were built considering twelve teachers from three schools, subjects, and teaching levels in Portugal.

This article identifies the several steps of the investigation that lead to the intensive study presented here. An extensive study on curriculum autonomy and teachers’ work engagement and well-being was conducted in Portugal allowing to identify trends in the relation between these three concepts. At the same time, and after the systematic literature review already conducted, it was decided to map the concept of curriculum autonomy based on curriculum policies proposed in five European countries representing different geographies and curriculum traditions: Portugal, Scotland, Finland, France, and Estonia. The results of these applied methods were considered to conduct an intensive study in three schools/cluster schools, selected according to the following criteria: 1. A school that developed the Pilot Project for Pedagogical Innovation (PPIP) and currently has a Pedagogical Innovation Plan. 2. A school that only has a Pedagogical Innovation Plan. 3. A school without a Pedagogical Innovation Plan. The intensive study was made through document analysis of the pedagogical documents from each school, two collaborative workshops in context. These workshops are considered co-constructed spaces and include the participation of school leadership members, middle management members, and teachers from each school. The first workshop aims to co-construct and reach a consensus on the information collection processes for the next phase of the project, which took place in the three selected schools. Data collection was carried out through unstructured direct observation, using a logbook and audio recordings. Twelve teachers’ life histories were built juxtaposing the data of each context and the story told by each teacher. The second workshop was used to discuss the results of the collected data with the participants, contributing to the construction of the research findings. The Ecological Approach to Teacher Agency developed by Priestley et al. (2015) was considered, as the authors propose the analysis of teacher agency through the interactions that occur between three domains that promote the realization of agency: i) iterational (related to the teacher's beliefs and convictions and their personal and professional life experience); ii) practical-evaluative (related to cultural, structural and material factors); iii) projective (what teachers imagine as the future in the short and long term).

The analysis highlights several key insights into the current state of the field. The data obtained from the questionnaire represent a valuable contribution to the field showing contradictory trends in the relation of three concepts in analysis: curriculum autonomy, work engagement and teachers’ well-being. The results of this study helped to identify similarities and differences in the use of the concept of curriculum autonomy across Europe as also to characterise the curriculum culture of each studied school institution. Findings show how teachers achieved their decisional capital regarding educational judgments and virtuosity. Also, the juxtaposition of national and individual trajectories allowed to inform processes of change and agency in education in Portugal and also in compliance with transnational movements. Teachers’ life histories also produced knowledge to enhance teacher education. As the individual is integrated in the social, life histories are an instrument to combat neoliberal policies and promote cooperative professionalism. Furthermore, this article offers strategic recommendations to advance research in this critical area.

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